Biography
Brumel was the son of a miner. He began going in for sports at age 12 in Lugansk, coached by P. S. Shtein. At age 16 he cleared 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in the high jump, using the then dominant straight-leg straddle technique. From the age of 17, he improved his skills under the coaching of V. M. Dyachkov in Moscow. In 1960 he broke the USSR record, 2.17 metres (7 ft 1 in), and made the Olympic Team. At the 1960 Summer Olympics, he scored the same result as the winner Robert Shavlakadze but made more attempts and won the silver (2nd place). He broke the world record for the high jump six times from 1961 to 1963, from 2.23 metres (7 ft 4 in) to 2.28 metres (7 ft 6 in). He won gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics.
After going undefeated during the 1965 season, Brumel injured his right leg in a motorcycle accident. Even after undergoing 29 operations, he could never get his career back on track, though he jumped 2.06 metres (6 ft 9 in) in 1970.
Read more about this topic: Valeriy Brumel
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)